The Justice Department opened a civil appeal in the Second Circuit on 28 July, docketed as 26-2060, in United States v. Board of Elections of the State of New York. The electronic index was filed in lieu of the record that afternoon, and the district court decision under appeal is dated 10 July.
Counting dismissals has stopped being informative. What the docket adds is geography: the programme now has appeals live in three federal circuits at once, having already lost on the merits at panel level in the Sixth.
Appellate courts do not have to agree with one another, and that is the department's remaining route. A single circuit accepting that the government need not name its statutory authority would give the programme a precedent no district court has been willing to supply. Three simultaneous appeals mean three chances at it, and a split between circuits would put the question where the department has fared better.
